


one more night in the backyard

by fireandfolds



Series: there's some beauty here yet [18]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Asexual Kara Danvers, F/F, Fluff, Lesbian Lena Luthor, Light Angst, Panic Attacks, Queerplatonic Relationships, Supercorptober, Supercorptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28145193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fireandfolds/pseuds/fireandfolds
Summary: kara has a panic attack on her apartment roof.supercorptober 2020 prompt eighteen: garden.title from “simple season” by hippo campus.
Relationships: Kara Danvers & Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Series: there's some beauty here yet [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952920
Comments: 2
Kudos: 79





	one more night in the backyard

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LavenderMandarin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LavenderMandarin/gifts).



> thanks mandy ([lavendermandarin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LavenderMandarin/pseuds/LavenderMandarin%22)) for being my beta on this one. it's pretty shitty but I'm learning a lot about writing from her. love you mand.

Kara was not having a good day. 

First, she’d been woken up (quite rudely) before the sun was even up to deal with an attempted robbery at a small convenience store, run by a nice Korean family. The Kim’s did not deserve this. She didn’t deserve this! 

It was resolved without too many problems, but by the time she got to work, she was pissed. As she sat down at her desk to edit some photos, she realised that she hadn't had breakfast. 

Shrugging her shoulders, the photographer decided it wasn’t an issue. She put her nose to the grindstone and focused on the pixels on her screen. She didn’t look up from her screen for anyone or anything, not even when a tall redhead woman knocked on the doorframe of her office.

“Hey! Kara!” 

“Huh?” Her head snapped up as her chair physically turned away from her desk. Alex was standing in front of her, hands on her armrests, with a crinkle between her brows. 

“I said, did you have breakfast after that attempted hit?”

“Oh, no, I forgot to when I went back home.”

Her older sister rolled her eyes. “Kara, you need to eat! I’m glad I brought something with me. The Kim’s wanted to thank us for saving their store earlier today, so,” She gestured to the bag on the desk. “Ms. Kim made you buchimgae. Eat it!”

“Oh, thanks Alex. What’s up with you?” For some reason, she didn’t feel hungry. She just wanted to finish her tasks, go home, and crawl into bed. She didn’t hear Alex’s answer. 

“Looks like you’re busy today, so I’m glad we had dinner together yesterday and not tonight. Aaaaand I don’t think you’re listening. Okay, I’m going to go now. Byeee.”

Kara grunted, not looking up from her work. Her desktop clock blinked 10 October 2020, 07:17.

———

“Knock, knock.”

Kara didn’t hear the brunette at her doorway. She’d been trying to fix the lighting in an entire batch of photos for the past hour. It turned out the settings on her camera had been off during her last shoot, making everything underexposed. 

She had to manually edit each one. With every passing snapshot, the ache behind her eyes grew, and soon her vision started going blurry on the edges.

Her head felt like a straight-edged box in space; bursting at the seams. 

She’s jolted out of her preoccupation when a hand pressed on her shoulder. Looking up, she found her best friend Lena Luthor raising a brow Kara’s way. Her smile was warm, but there was concern tugging at the edges of her eyes.

“Oh, hi Lee.”

The blonde stood and gave Lena a tense hug. It’s returned with quiet softness. The comforting scent of jasmine and mint surrounded Kara, relaxing her neck and back slightly. 

The younger woman pulled back, palming the side of Kara’s face gently. 

“Are you all right, love? I had a hard time getting your attention earlier.”

“I’m...fine. I just got caught up in a project that’s due soon.” Kara glanced at the top bar on her computer. She found 11 October 2020, 17:43. “Yep, really caught up in it.”

So. Apparently, she worked through the night and forgot to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 34 hours straight. She hadn’t even noticed the light disappearing and coming out again. 

Suddenly, the tiredness hit her, and as her knees buckled she sat heavily on her office chair. 

“Kar!”

She gritted her teeth to stave away the throbbing pain in her head, as she gave Lena what she _hoped_ was a nonchalant look. 

“Hey, boss? I’m going to need the rest of the day off.”

The shrewd Luthor woman fixed her with a piercing look, emerald irises gleaming in the crisp light.

“Grab your coat. I’ll take you.”

“I’m fine.” She waved off the shorter woman’s offers for help standing.

“I just want to make sure you get home safe, darling. You don’t look well.” Lena reached up with a hand, but Kara stepped away, stuffing her things in her satchel and grabbing her coat as she stalked out of her office. 

“Learn to leave things well enough alone, will you?”

———

She landed on the roof to her apartment building hastily, shoving her frames back on her face, nearly face planting onto smooth concrete.

Just in time, too. Kara could feel her pounding headache getting worse by the second, rivalled only by her thudding heart in her ears. It was getting hard to breathe, too. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath and the grip on her bag was slick.

She fell into an armchair overlooking the National City skyline and dropped her things as her vision started fizzing at the edges again. She tried to remember what Alex had instructed her to do in response to her frequent panic attacks.

_Breathe from the diaphragm._

_Head between your legs._

_Close your eyes._

_Breathe in from your nose for four seconds, hold for one, breathe out through the mouth for four seconds._

_Confront the feelings._

_Don’t look for distractions._

_The sun always rises at dawn._

Her mind was racing, desperately trying to find the cause. It came up empty, much like her lungs. The only thing she could hear was her breathing and her heartbeat. 

Suddenly, jasmine and mint tickled her nose again. She looked up to find Lena at her side, lovingly frustrated face and all. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but clearly enough for her best friend to come find her.

“How-When did you get here?” Her words were staccatoed between heaving breaths, like a WWII plane gunner shooting through a propeller. 

Lena’s voice was steady, a lighthouse standing above the churning sea between her and Kara. 

“Do you remember? You told me how you loved to sit on the roof of your building and watch the sun set. When the sky is tinged with red, it reminds you of home.” 

Kara nodded and scrubbed her cheeks as Lena sat herself down on another chair facing her, grabbing the blonde’s hand.

“You told me how you confused ‘concrete jungle’ with ‘concrete garden’, but after learning of the correct term you used your version anyway. It made more sense to you. You said jungles couldn’t exist in National City.”

Lena’s calm cadence was working. Kara felt her chest heaving less and her breaths were becoming less wheezy. She folded her frames and hung them on her shirt placket, rubbing her face with her hands. 

“American slang always gets the both of us, I think. But I think your little language fuck-ups make you all the more endearing. Who cares if you thought _amped_ is the same as electrocution? Or when you get concerned about people _having a blast?_ I love you all the same.”

Kara felt the edge of her lip curving up as she looked into light green eyes full of warmth and love. She stood and moved to lean on the raised concrete edge of the roof, focusing on the proud L-Corp building across the city. When she turned back to the chairs, she found Lena smiling softly at her. 

The younger woman stood as well, and her smile got a little tighter. “I won’t condescend you by asking if you’re okay. But just let me in. I won’t stand to be shut out, not again.”

The journalist sighed, looking down at her feet. “I’m sorry. I snapped. The stress of the project really got to my head, and then I forgot to eat on top of that.” She loosened her tie, turning back to the skyline. “I have a bad habit of closing myself off when things get tough. When I was younger, it was what I was supposed to do. Keep it all in, keep appearances up. It became habit, I guess.”

As she spoke, Lena sidled up to her, slipping under one of her arms and melding to her side. “You know, we’re a lot alike in that respect. I’ll have you know, I’m the _master_ of isolation. Elsa from Frozen has nothing on me.”

“I’m going to talk to my therapist about this again, during our session this week.”

“I can take you?”

“I’d love that.” Kara pulled Lena in for a hug, dropping a kiss on raven hair. 

“Come on, the sun’s about to set.” She’s pulled back toward the chairs, and in Lena’s arms before she knew it. She rested her head on the businesswoman’s chest, feeling Lena’s strong heart beat under her ear. 

As the sky grew ruddy, Lena riffled through Kara’s close-cropped hair and whispered into her ear. “You haven’t eaten in, what, almost 2 days? Let’s go back down, I’m going to buy you literally a truck full of potstickers and pizza.”

As they stood, Kara halted the other woman, wrapping her arms around her again. “Thanks.”

“I love you.”

———

_i hope you're alright_

_the sun's turning red_

_i hope that it sets so gently now_

_(nz :: lupin)_

———

**Author's Note:**

> hey, thanks for reading—let me know what you think in the comments below.
> 
> find me elsewhere, on [my carrd](https://fireandfolds.carrd.co/), and check out my [glasses fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23181505/chapters/55488211).
> 
> stream hippo campus & stan sandra oh,
> 
> kier x


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